Barnsley v Stoke City Preview
By Andrew Symcox
February 24 2021
Barnsley v Stoke City Preview Championship 24/2/21 by Andy Symcox Red All Over YouTube Show
Winning run to continue?
We take on an experienced Stoke team with 2 ex-players in their squad, Jacob Brown &
Adam Davies. I've no doubt they would both have received a warm welcome if we were
allowed into Oakwell.
Last season, we drew 2-2 at Oakwell & lost 0-4 at Stoke when the season resumed after
lockdown.
Basic statistics:
Since 1907, there have been 61 meetings between the clubs.
Barnsley have won 22, Stoke have won 22 with 17 draws.
There’s an interesting contrast between the 2 clubs - Stoke have a very experienced
squad, whilst we have a very young squad that is growing week by week. The “experience
gap” seems to be lessening.
We have won our last 3 matches whilst Stoke have won their last 2 matches, both at home
(1-0 v Sheffield Wednesday & 3-0 v Luton last Saturday). It would appear that their main
goal threat will come from the experienced Steven Fletcher (8 goals) & Nick Powell (10
goals). They'll need to watch out for Cauley Woodrow (9 league goals) & Carlton Morris (3
goals in his last 3 matches!). We'll need to be careful with the speed of Jacob Brown &
they ought to be worried about the physical presence of Darryl Dike.
Stoke’s away stats are particularly interesting - in their last 7 away matches, they have lost
1 & drawn 6!
For the 2nd week in succession, we are playing a team on the same points as us (45).
Stoke are a place above us due to goal difference (+4 as opposed to -1). It's worthy of
note that we have a game in hand!
For a few weeks, on Quest, we have had some positive comments about our football. Last
week, the show even mentioned that me might be playoff contenders! Is the tide turning
from the “teams like Barnsley “ tag? Well, perhaps, but it was still mentioned by an
opposition player last weekend. Funnily enough, it always comes out in the same way ...
“We should be beating teams like Barnsley!”
Oh well, how sad, never mind!